The pitch to the ABC executives must have been challenging, the eager producer daintily tap-dancing his way around the elephant in the room as he attempted to sell his exciting new show.

Producer: It’s a radical look at consumerism and marketing, exposing all the tricks and trades of the advertising industry.

ABC executive: You mean it’s the same as The Gruen Transfer?

Producer: No, no, no. Nothing like that. That was a panel show. Our show has actors and cameos and vox pop segments and cool animated sequences all around hard-hitting investigative journalism.

ABC executive: You mean it’s the same as Hungry Beast?

Producer: Well, er, well, not really, but yes one of the girls is from that show, as it happens. Kirsten. Fabulous talent! But this show is nothing like that one. Our show is all about ambushing people with hidden cameras in shopping malls and sneaking up on unsuspecting sales assistants and exposing all the rorts.

ABC executive: You mean it’s the same as The Chaser?

Producer: Well, er, no, of course not, I mean, well, er, um in some ways, yeah, kind of. But that’s deliberate! After all, two of the guys in the show are from The Chaser, as it happens. Julian and Craig. Fabulous talent! But it’s completely different.

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“Gruen" is, of course, the word that the team on the ABC’s latest assault on marketing and consumerism, called The Checkout, can’t mention without squirming awkwardly in their seats. The show comes from the Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder stable, also responsible for Gruen and Hungry Beast, and unavoidably covers much of the same territory both those shows explored. So what’s new and different and why should anyone watch it?

What made Gruen so appealing was predominantly the wit and skill of Jon Casimir’s writing combined with the depth of research behind it.

Add the humour of Wil Anderson and the carefully nurtured Russel versus Todd rivalry and there was plenty to keep the punters engaged.

The Checkout follows a similar formula with excellent research, a fantastic script and superb performances from the four key members of the team. It’s made in cahoots with Australia’s consumer watchdog, Choice, so arguably their research has even more bite to it. In the first episode, The Checkout launched a merciless assault on “dodgy weight loss products" and supplements suppliers like Swisse, attacking them with even more gusto (and ammo) than Gruen did.

Craig Reucassel is at his best as he pours scorn on Swisse’s ads (featuring
Ricky Ponting
) that claim the product is “independently tested". “You know when Ricky says “independently tested", Reucassel deadpans,“he means that two of the testers work at an institute funded by Swisse – and that one of those testers happens to be the father of the CEO of Swisse."

It’s a terrific segment, and if anyone was still foolish enough to splurge their money on such products, they should take a look at this episode very quickly. But Craig’s target isn’t so much Swisse and other such companies, as the toothless Therapeutics Goods Administration and its inability to properly protect consumers. “The system is a joke, and they don’t enforce the joke of the system."

But here’s where The Chaser’s skills lift the entire show out of the Gruen mould and to a higher level. Not content with merely savaging the TGA, the team set out to humiliate them as well, with a very clever segment where they create a new vitamins product called TGA and attempt to flog it in a health shop, in a manner reminiscent of The Chaser’s hilarious ambushing of the Reckitt Benckiser marketing team.

Fellow ex-Chaser Julian Morrow is equally scathing in a superb segment attacking the practice of automobile companies – he takes particular umbrage at Mazda – of persuading Australian consumers to over-service their vehicles as he forensically examines various disclaimers.

“A load of deliberately confusing self-serving bollocks which more or less epitomises the word ‘misleading’."

It’s terrific stuff, and the show should put the fear of God into many a marketing director. Nestle came in for numerous attacks, including a very funny fake complaints letter about their Purina Supercoat cat’s biscuits:

“The ingredients in ‘Furball with Salmon Favour’ are exactly the same as the ingredients in ‘Kitten Chicken and Rice’. Oh except for one thing – ‘Furball with Salmon Flavour’ contains no fish but ‘Kitten Chicken and Rice’ contains both fish and fish by-products. It doesn’t, however, contain any rice!"

Freed of the limitations of the studio panel format, and armed with great research, canny script-writing, punchy performances and imaginative segments, the show (well, the first three episodes at least) makes for compulsive and enjoyable viewing.